Need some help

[lcornwell36]

I bought my K40 2 weeks ago and I understood that with air assist you can cut 3mm acrylic. I can only get my laser to cut halfway through. Has anyone cut 3mm with Moshidraw on the K40?

Another question - If I were to upgrade to DSP could I cut small and intricate things like this?

[Tech_Marco]

I don't use Moshidraw for long so I'm not sure if they have improved the performance. The version that I used to work with was terrible and gave us a lot of trouble so we dropped that, and many folks have issue with Moshi as well

With DSP you can do everything you can do on Moshi but more. BTW, the picture you attached is not a vector format graphic but raster (.jpg). So, it is good for engraving but not cutting. Vector image can be created from one of this (but not limited to) software: CorelDraw, AutoCad or Illustrator.


Marco

[NickWL]

I was able to cut 6mm acrylic with MoshiDraw - and it did quite a neat job of it.
But Marco is right, you'll never regret upgrading to DSP with its far better control and claimed longer tube life.
The software (LaserCAD) is also orders of magnitude better than Moshi and Marco's support will out-perform anything you're likely to get from your box-shifting supplier.

[swamidog]

the DSP is quite capable, but it really is a matter of garbage in/garbage out.

i would expect no problems cutting a piece like that if your artwork is good.

xle-acrylic-skull.jpg (152.75 KiB) Viewed 4251 times

I bought my K40 2 weeks ago and I understood that with air assist you can cut 3mm acrylic. I can only get my laser to cut halfway through. Has anyone cut 3mm with Moshidraw on the K40?

Another question - If I were to upgrade to DSP could I cut small and intricate things like this?

[NickWL]

I'd hazard a guess that your problem with not being able to cut acrylic is an unfocused beam.
A second option, if you've had no air-assist, might well be dirt on the lens and mirrors. Cutting plastics produces a lot of vapour which condenses wherever it can find a suitable spot: mirrors and lenses. Clean with acetone.

[lcornwell36]

I don't use Moshidraw for long so I'm not sure if they have improved the performance. The version that I used to work with was terrible and gave us a lot of trouble so we dropped that, and many folks have issue with Moshi as well

With DSP you can do everything you can do on Moshi but more. BTW, the picture you attached is not a vector format graphic but raster (.jpg). So, it is good for engraving but not cutting. Vector image can be created from one of this (but not limited to) software: CorelDraw, AutoCad or Illustrator.


Marco

Thanks for the help. I've been in the graphic industry for 20 years and fully understand the difference between vector and raster. The picture is just a reference for what I'm trying to do with the laser cutter. Before I spent a lot of time trying to get this to work on Moshidraw, I just wanted to see if anybody had success using the software. I'm trying to determine if I need to upgrade to DSP to get the results that I'm looking for.

I have done the test to see what my focal point is on my lens and have come to the conclusion that it is 38mm. I have done some table mods to get the focus where it should be and Moshidraw 2014 now has the ability to cut at different speeds. I have tried cutting 3mm acrylic at 100% 4mm/s with 15mv.

Thanks again for the help.

[lcornwell36]

I'd hazard a guess that your problem with not being able to cut acrylic is an unfocused beam.
A second option, if you've had no air-assist, might well be dirt on the lens and mirrors. Cutting plastics produces a lot of vapour which condenses wherever it can find a suitable spot: mirrors and lenses. Clean with acetone.

I was using a rigged up air assist until today. I received my laser head w/ air assist from Lightobject. I have rechecked my lens focal point and set the height correctly but I still can't cut acrylic. Does it make any difference on which focal lens is used? Is 50mm better than 38mm?

[Mangus]

38mm is better for putting power to the target, but at the cost of more of a bevel to the cut edge.

If you can't cut 3mm acrylic at 15 mA at 4mm/s irrespective of air assist, I'd say you're not making full power. Perhaps your tube is bad, or your optics not properly aligned? Don't trust the alignment as it came shipped to you.